Overview:Two considerations: how many assignments (and how extensive each of them is) and how much time is spent on each one. Are there a minimum number of pages for the term?For individual assignments?What is the extent of the instructor’s involvement in preparation of final revisions?What are the grading criteria? How extensive is the commentary at various stages of the composing process?
Number of Assignments
Optional? Can some of them be ungraded exercises? In-class writing assignments other than exams?
Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly? How often do you want or need to receive from students writing that you evaluate? Could shorter projects be ungraded or plus/minus?
How much are assignments worth towards a student’s final grade?
How much research will you require?
How Much Time
How many versions of the work will there be? One draft plus revision? More than one draft? Proposal plus draft plus revision? Rewriting options?
Time spent on drafts: Often, students can respond successfully to each others’ drafts within peer groups. Alternatively, a drafting conference might consist of the instructor and a small number of students gathered to discuss drafting strategies and to offer assistance to works-in-progress. If students are given good direction, their peer groups can be extremely valuable for all concerned. Clearly, if students themselves are responsible for assisting each other through the drafting process,the instructor has less to do at that stage.
Proposals? If you ask for a proposal for a project, how extensive should it be and what do you plan to say about it?
The description of an assignment should be as detailed as possible. Give the students the time frame, the research restrictions (if any) and clarify what you mean by the key terms you use: analysis, interpretation, etc.
Do you plan to discuss research methods in your discipline with the class and/or with individual students, depending on their topics and interests?
Other Considerations
Contract grading
Open and closed assignments
Pass/Fail components
Participation of students in developing assignments, short and long-term
Overview: Two considerations: how many assignments (and how extensive each of them is) and how much time is spent on each one. Are there a minimum number of pages for the term? For individual assignments? What is the extent of the instructor’s involvement in preparation of final revisions? What are the grading criteria? How extensive is the commentary at various stages of the composing process?
Number of Assignments
How Much Time
Other Considerations